Frank Pallone: “I am amazed when I listen to the comments of the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson) and she said that this…”

“I am amazed when I listen to the comments of the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson) and she said that this plan, I assume she is talking about the House-passed plan, does not privatize Medicare. The fact of the matter is that this motion to instruct that gentleman from Maine (Mr. Michaud) has so ably introduced and spoke upon, makes the point in his motion to instruct that the Republican House bill does exactly that. It does privatize Medicare. And the motion to instruct essentially has two points. One is that we have to get rid of the overall privatization of Medicare because in the House bill essentially it says you get a voucher and by the year 2010, if you do not go into a private plan for all of Medicare, not just for prescription drugs, then you have to pay more if you want to stay in traditional Medicare. So what happens is because you essentially force seniors to either take a private plan and find a private plan or this they do not want to stay and buy that private plan, stay in traditional Medicare, they have to pay more, you will eventually price traditional Medicare, fee-for-service Medicare, out of the market and the only thing left for the senior will be to take a private plan. That is exactly what the motion to instruct tries to get rid of, this voucher system, this premium support system, that essentially forces privatization on the senior citizens by the year 2010.”